The present invention relates to a clothes washing machine and more particularly to a tubless washer system including a drive subsystem which allows the basket to be mounted on a hollow shaft that provides a water conduit from the basket to the drain sump.
Conventional clothes washing machines of the vertical axis, agitator type are traditionally rather large and complex. Generally, there is provided a cabinet enclosing an outer, water-retaining tub within which is situated a clothes-retaining basket, usually having perforate walls. An agitator is mounted within this inner basket and the basket agitator assembly is coupled through a suitable power transmission with an electric motor for rotational and oscillatory motion.
Referring to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,952,557-Bochan and 3,958,433-Bochan, assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention, there is disclosed a clothes washing machine employing a combination tub-washer basket which is capable of being rotated about its concentric vertical axis including a hollow shaft that provides a water conduit for removal of water from clothes during a centrifugal extraction process and which is oscillated during a washing process.
It is desirable to provide a washing machine of the vertical axis type wherein the outer water-retaining tub is eliminated, thereby resulting in a single imperforate basket for receiving both the items to be washed and the washing medium. It is also desirable to provide such a vertical axis machine that has a centrifugal water extraction capability but which has a simplified drive mechanism.